Where's Waldo?
Release Date:
No Release Date at this Time
There is nothing else in the literary world that offers the intrinsic entertainment value of a Where's Waldo? book. The noble pursuit of turning the pages and carefully studying clues in order to ascertain the current location of a complete stranger has proven popular with tens of millions of people, and why whouldn't it be? Such activity is the closest route to legal stalking currently available in society.
Alternately, parents love to stick their children in their room for an hour or two in order to throw down some aspirin and drink their way into temporary mental stability. The Where's Waldo? books written by Martin Handford have proven as successful as anything else in being shiny enough to quiet kids from begging for a new videogame every three minutes.
Now, Nickelodeon Films and the kind folks at Paramount Pictures have had an epiphany. Why not capitalize on the blockbuster success of these books? After all, the four-eyed nerd in books being adapted into a family film franchise has already worked once recently with Harry Potter. Maybe less astute parents looking to escape the woes of parenting by leaving the house for a couple of hours might be willing to accept having their intelligence insulted by an 80-minute movie as the price for temporary freedom.
With regards to the story of the movie, if you are looking for a captivating blend of emotional growth and childish whimsy, you are probably out of luck. Never say never, though. Director John Schultz's last family outing was the satisfying Like Mike, which wasn't exactly operating with a killer premise either. Under any circumstance, parents should expect their kids to make a fair share of screeching requests for a new red and white sweater with matching ski cap at some point in 2005. This is exactly why group therapy has grown so popular. (David Mumpower/BOP)
